"The advantages of the lecture approach are that it provides a way to communicate a large amount of information to many listeners, maximizes instructor control and is non-threatening to students. The disadvantages are that lecturing minimizes feedback from students, assumes an unrealistic level of student understanding and comprehension, and often disengages students from the learning process causing information to be quickly forgotten."
the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
On the Cutting Edge - Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty
Designing Effective and Innovative Courses
- Research shows clearly that a person must be engaged to learn. People learn by actively participating in observing, speaking, writing, listening, thinking, drawing, and doing.
- Learning is enhanced when a person sees potential implications, applications, and benefits to others.
- Learning builds on current understanding (including misconceptions!).
As you enter a classroom ask yourself this question: "If there were no students in the room, could I do what I am planning to do?" If your answer to the question is yes, don't do it.
Gen. Ruben Cubero, Dean of The Faculty, United States Air Force Academy
"What would it be like to teach in a general education classroom using the strategies and techniques I was using with gifted children?", Carol Horn asked herself. "In my new heterogeneous classroom of sixth graders, I first presented a more challenging curriculum for all students, and then adjusted and differentiated as needed in order to accommodate a variety of readiness levels. . .I found that all students thrived on and were motivated by a challenging and complex curriculum." (Classroom Leadership On-Line, September 2000)
"Research shows, there is a strong correlation between learning to play chess and academic achievement. In 2000, a landmark study found that students who received chess instruction scored significantly higher on all measures of academic achievement, including math, spatial analysis, and non-verbal reasoning ability (Smith and Cage, 2000).
While studies have shown chess to have a positive impact on kids in elementary, middle and high school, AF4C targeted second and third graders as the evidence, and certainly our experience, suggests it's the ideal age. Eight and nine year-old minds and thinking skills are developing rapidly, and chess teaches higher level thinking skills such as the ability to visualize, analyze, and think critically.
If you teach an adult to play chess, they quickly comprehend where they should and shouldn't move pieces to capture or avoid capture. Young Kate knew the names of the pieces and how they moved, but initially moved her pieces randomly. Soon she was saying, "If I move my piece here, you could capture it, right? Then I'm not going to move there." You can almost see the mental changes taking place. "
"It was once thought that the teaching of thinking skills was not a possibility, since they were believed to be innate. As these tools were developed they were then believed to be appropriate mostly for more intelligent or more advanced learners. Now we understand that the skills of problem-solving, analysis, synthesis, creativity, evaluation, and other higher order thinking processes can be taught and learned, even by those considered to be less able than their peers. Most of these tools can be embedded into the teaching of any subject, and many can be facilitated through specific software programs. As students use computers as tools to learn, they also exercise their thinking by learning how to ask the right questions, pursue research on the Internet, and evaluate their sources of information."
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